2. Requirements of a home network
Before considering a specific scenario, make a list of the requirements of a typical home network.
These include
- Should be fairly non-technical to set up
- It should not require awkward or expensive cable runs
- It needs to connect to the internet
- It should be fast enough to support typical entertainment services
- Reading, writing emails
- Using social networks
- Browsing the web
- Streaming video
- Online gaming
- It should allow each computer to share files (or kept private if need be)
- It should make peripherals such as printers and scanner available to all the household
- Data rates across the network should be fast enough to make it practical to copy and move large files from machine to machine
- The internet download / upload speed should be able to support more than one user at the same time.
- The data download contract should be sufficient to not be affected by data usage limits.
- It should support media streaming within the house
- Topology will typically be peer to peer - no central server
- Anti-virus, firewall and backup system should be in place and largely automatic.
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